“It is the Spirit who gives life”
John’s Gospel can sometimes be very difficult, even nearly impenetrable.
(John 6:53-64 ESV) 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.”
I find myself with the disciples on this one! This is a hard saying!
Jesus is making a parallel with the Exodus. God fed the people with manna and found them water to drink. Jesus says the Kingdom will be like the Exodus, except he’ll be the manna and the water — his flesh and blood will be what sustains God’s redeemed people on their journey to the Promised Land.
It’s clear (more or less) from v. 64 and such verses as these —
(John 6:40 ESV) 40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
(John 6:47 ESV) 47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”
— that Jesus is speaking of faith in him. Somehow “eat my flesh” and “drink my blood” means “believe in Jesus.” I think that’s because to believe in the scriptural sense of “believe” is to live as Jesus lived, to take his sacrifice into our lives and to live it. We become what we eat. We eat Jesus to become like Jesus — in his sacrifice.
It’s hard, but that seems to be the sense.
So, given that, what does v. 63 mean?
(John 6:63 ESV) 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Well, we’ve already learned about being born of the Spirit and the Spirit being living water within the believer. The idea that the Spirit gives life makes perfect sense as the Spirit is part of giving the new birth and wells up within the believer to salvation. The flesh cannot accomplish this on its own. It requires God’s intervention within the believer through the Spirit.
So how are Jesus’ words “spirit and life”? Jesus isn’t referring to the “word of God” in the abstract. He’s speaking of what he just said, including, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” Jesus is vividly and controversially making the point that it’s only those who so believe in him that they can be said to eat his flesh and drink his blood — who walk as he walked, lived as he lives — who will have life in the next age. And these words bring spirit (or Spirit) and life.
We have to also see the parallel with Genesis 1, made by John in chapter 1. Jesus words — logos — are spirit and life in a Genesis 1 sense. They are creative. They effect God’s will, but it’s by the Spirit’s work in support in giving life that the words produce life.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.”
(John 7:37-39 ESV) 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This occurred at the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles). The ceremony is well described at Christ-Centered Mall —
On the first day of the feast, each participant had to collect twigs of myrtle, willow, and palm in the area of Jerusalem for construction of their booth (Nehemiah 8:13-18). These “huts” or “booths” were constructed from bulrushes as joyful reminders of the temporary housing erected by their forefathers during the Exodus wanderings (Leviticus 23:40-41; Deuteronomy 16:14). The “booth” in Scripture is a symbol of protection, preservation, and shelter from heat and storm (Psalm 27:5; 31:20; Isaiah 4:6). The rejoicing community included family, servants, orphans, widows, Levites, and sojourners (Deuteronomy 16:13-15).
Besides the construction of the booths, other festivities included the ingathering of the labor of the field (Exodus 23:16), the ingathering of the threshing floor and winepress (Deuteronomy 16:13), and the ingathering of the fruit of the earth (Leviticus 23:39), Samples of the fall crop were hung in each family’s booth to acknowledge God’s faithfulness in providing for His people.
On the eighth and final day of the feast, the high priest of Israel, in a great processional made up of priests and tens of thousands of worshipers, descended from the Temple Mount to pause briefly at the Pool of Siloam. A pitcher was filled with water, and the procession continued via a different route back to the Temple Mount. Here, in the midst of great ceremony, the high priest poured the water out of the pitcher onto the altar.
Since in Israel the rains normally stop in March, there is no rain for almost seven months! If God does not provide the “early” rains in October and November, there will be no spring crop, and famine is at the doorstep. This ceremony, then, was intended to invoke God’s blessing on the nation by providing life-giving water.
Leon Morris, in the New International Commentary on John, says,
The Jerusalem Talmud connects the ceremonies and [Isa 12:3] with the Holy Spirit: “Why is the name of it called, The drawing out of water? Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said: ‘With joy ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.'”
And so it makes perfect sense that Jesus would choose this occasion to announce that the Spirit would come to all with faith in Jesus. The long-promised coming of the Spirit was about to happen — if only Israel would recognize the Messiah within their midst!
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
I'm reminded of Jesus's words:
Mat 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Since Jesus is our righteousness, he seems to be saying that being filled is to have him living in us. "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col 1:27. "He who is in you…" 1 Jn 4:4.
This seems to correspond with Jesus' description of the giving of the Spirit in Jn 14:16-17: "for he dwells with you and will be in you." Note in v.18 that the sending of the Spirit corresponds with the coming of Jesus (in the sense of v.19- 20).
There seems to be direct connection between the indwelling of the Spirit and Jesus being in us.
Laymond, What application are you attempting to make with the quoting of Matthew 4:4?
Our Sunday morning sermon was on this text…God is awesome! Thank you for the article.
"I think that’s because to believe in the scriptural sense of “believe” is to live as Jesus lived, to take his sacrifice into our lives and to live it."
Is that it? It has nothing to do with believing that He, as the unique Son of God, came and took on the just punishment due to me because of my sin? Nothing to do with repentance? Nothing to do with His defeat of enemies and the elimination of our debt?
Secondly, "the idea that the Spirit gives life makes perfect sense as the Spirit is part of giving the new birth and wells up within the believer to salvation. The flesh cannot accomplish this on its own."
Correction, the flesh cannot accomplish this at all. It is all the work of the Spirit (God) who goes where He wills to whom He wills. Through this, God grants repentance. The flesh plays no role in this process as it is God who replaces the heart of stone, enabling faith and repentance.
Jr,
John doesn't use "flesh" in the same sense as Paul. Paul uses "flesh" to refer to our sinful nature, but John says,
Jesus was flesh, but he was not a sinful nature. Thus, in the Johannine context, to say, "The flesh cannot accomplish this on its own” is to state the obvious. It's not as though humans are entirely passive in their walk with God.
There are those who would interpret this (and countless similar passages) as though we have so little free will that it was pointless for Paul to have written the passage — the Spirit would accomplish this result in the Phillippians regardless of whether Paul wrote his letter to them. I tend to think that Paul wrote his letter for a reason — his exhortation mattered (and matters).
Paul (and Jesus as recorded by John) show the tension between God being in us through his Spirit and prompting us to do right and our own free will. And, of course, in even the most Calvinistic congregations, the preacher urges the flock toward greater obedience. We are not utterly without volition.
The language that "the flesh cannot accomplish this at all" is normally used in the context of conversion. Jesus is speaking in large part of how we live as Christians — that is, he was comparing the Christian's journey with God to the Exodus and his own flesh to manna — which sustained God's people in the wilderness.
While "life" is certainly used in the scriptures (even John) to refer to new life of a new convert, when Jesus says "Whoever feeds on my flesh," "feeds" (and "drinks") are present active, referring to continuous, not point-in-time action. He is not addressing conversion in particular. Thus, he is saying we'll be sustained (nourished, built up) by faith in our Christian walk.
When I say, "“believe” is to live as Jesus lived, to take his sacrifice into our lives and to live it.” I don't intend to define faith but rather to address some of its characteristics and results. When I say, "My wife is sweet," I don't mean to define her as a flavor.
"Faith" is a multifaceted concept. It's not likely that he meant by "faith" that those listening should believe in his resurrection, as he'd not yet been resurrected, and yet the resurrection is an essential element of saving faith. Rather, to "believe in" Jesus could easily have been heard by his listeners as "be commited to" or "be loyal to" in the language of the day. And, of course, he likely meant "believe that I'm the Messiah." But Messiahship would, to a First Century Jew, necessarily entail commitment and loyalty. After all, the Messiah would be the prayed-for king who would sit on David's throne.
"Gives" in v. 63 is continuous (present, active) — the Spirit continuously gives life. It's in the same voice as his public speech — and so seems to be more about the Spirit's work in the saved person rather than the Spirit's converting work. Thus, Jesus associates the Spirit, his words, faith, "eating," and "drinking" all with how we survive in the wilderness as we travel to the Promised Land.
Now, as I've argued many, many time, "faith" in John is much more than mere intellectual acceptance. It's a changed heart, submission, penitence, loyalty, commitment — faithfulness. To believe in Jesus certainly includes belief that he is the Messiah but it's also our willingness to submit to what that means: that Jesus is Lord, that he sits on a throne as ruler of the Universe. Indeed, there's also an element of trust in faith, as Abraham's faith was faith that God would keep his promise to give him a son.
There are several ways to look at it, and I'm not sure I could prefer any one as especially right. When Jesus spoke in such symbolic terms, I think he meant for us to study his thoughts at some length — not to just plug in "faith" but to understand what faith means in this context, to ponder how faith sustains us in the wilderness as manna sustained Israel.
And I think Israel was sustained by eating the manna, not by thinking about it. It was in eating it that they learned it was good and sufficient. Faith isn't really faith until we eat it — until we take it in and see how it tastes and feels in our bellies and how our hunger is satisfied. Real faith is faith that is lived.
Jay:
I do not disagree with exhortation to greater obedience; however I see these exhortations as self-checks (warnings and encouragements?), if you will. It is God working in a believer to further sanctify him/her, and this work will be played out in our lives as justified sinners. When we examine our lives, therefore, we can bear witness to the work of God within us. If it is not being played out (even at a snail pace) then we can question whether or not we are born-again. The only way we can choose God is because we are born-again, for no natural man is able to choose God.
I say this to point out that, as far as I can tell, "flesh" is used more than incarnationally in John. Particularly in regards to becoming children of God (John 1:13, "who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God") and again in Jesus' discourse with Nicodemus (John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.")
Which leads me to my next point concerning the Spirit…
I agree with you that "the Spirit continuously gives life." Yet we can't forget that the first reference to the Spirit is in Jesus' discourse with Nicodemus where the reference is explicitly concerning salvation. There we have references to Ezekiel 36:23-28, 37:5-6, and similarly Isaiah 44:3-6, 1QS 4:20-22, Jub 1:23-25, Joseph and Aseneth 8:9-11. I say this only to point out that in these texts (both Old Testament and Second Temple period) we have the role of the Spirit as a cleanser, a purifier, and a life-giver. If we add on to the a life-sustainer (as we should) the Spirit's work is depicted in much the same manner. Obedience to God, knowledge of God, and the covenant with God are renewed in such a way that the people become the people that God has willed for them to be all along. God does this on His own accord and to whom He pleases (as the Spirit is described in John 3:8). This is the only way to become a child of God (John 1:12) who are born from above. Consequently, the Spirit that then sustains this life will do so perfectly and we will see it played out in our lives. We eat and we drink because it is Christ who sustains us through the Spirit that He sends.
How how greatly loved are those who can call themselves children of God! Ephesians 2:4-5
Grace to you –
Jr
Dear partners and brothers and sisters in Christ! Could you please pray for God and ohers including my forgiveness, and for me to have Eternal Peace here on earth and in the Holy City New Jerusalem of God in The New Heavens And New Earth; the Renewed or Brand New Earth; Heavenly Paradises or Paradise In the New World on Earth? THANK YOU AND AFFECTIONATELY AFENI!!!!!!!!!!